Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul" <roark.paul@...> wrote:
>
> I think the most interesting comparison would be the HP dye ink on some non-swellable paper stock that was used for Claria tests.  The swellable papers are not of much interest, as the market has indicated.    The more direct the comparison with Claria, the better.
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>

Sort on [paper/media][contains]"advanced" to pull up both Claria ink on HP Advanced paper as well as the 57+,58,59 HP dye set, as well as the HP8750 (which is a unique "Vivera" dye set including more photo gray plus a violet/blue dye).  While I can't say for certain or not whether HP added specific chemistry to it's Hp Advanced paper tailored to help the Vivera dyes specifically, I can say that the Advanced paper is a microporous type paper, and that it is marketed by HP as a "universal" inkjet paper. In other words HP is happy to promote and sell it for use with Canon, Epson, and other inkjet printers as well.

I should point out here that the AaI&A Conservation display ratings for dye based systems should be taken under advisement as the lawyers say.  Due to continuing dye migration in dye-based inkjet prints it's often hard to define the "true" reference values at the start of test. Neither I nor my professional colleagues have a really great "incubation" protocol to deal with this continuing dye migration issue, so it naturally makes testing dye base inkjet prints a little noisier.  Because the Conservation display rating is a very stringent standard for early changes and well suited to pigmented ink/fine art applications, and because the typical consumer is unlikely to even be aware of any short term color settling effects that have nothing to do with light fading or gas fading, a better understanding of these systems is best gained by also paying attention to the more advanced levels of fade which are clearly light induced.  Thus, looking at the I* color and tonal accuracy score at 100 megalux hours in test, for example, will be very instructive. 

What is obvious in the AaI&A tests is how well HP has engineered the "balanced" fading characteristic into both its Vivera dye and Pigment sets.  This is especially important to the consumer market because down the road, prints that retain better balance in color and tone, even though less saturated in color and lower in contrast, will lead to much more successful copying/restoration efforts when needed.
 
I realize on this forum many of you will be most interested in the photo grays and PK performance, so by all means take a look at the neutral patch response in these samples even though the driver may be using more color dyes than would be absolutely necessary to make a nice monochrome system.   Nonetheless, as most people on this forum are well aware, some additional colorants usually get mixed right into the photo gray and black dyes themselves. If those colorants are also fade-balanced then the monochrome print is likely not to hue shift over time even though it may lighten and lose some contrast.

kind regards,
Mark